Archive for the 'Photography' Category

This week I am able to get a little respite from all the things going on around myself… namely a new baby (little Jolie’s not so new now :P), a new routine with the 2 boys (what with Ivan being on holiday), being back in the daily grind and of course, the most time consuming newbie in my schedule, a new business. I’m sure most of you would have read about our spanking new website TwoPixels Photography from Jazzmint’s blog.

Yes, we’ve definitely and finally made the plunge into our freelance photography business after numerous free photoshoots, photoshoots which I have been going around requesting from and offering to those I know. TwoPixels will be mainly focusing on a niche market, pregnancy and newborn photoshoots, with a few family photoshoots thrown in here and there.

I’m ever so thankful to those who have AGREED to have pictures of their baby taken during our early days, especially Christine, who was the very first person I approached to have her little Lyan Fung’s picture taken at 8 days old. I guess if we have not kick started this business, I would still be going around checking out preggy mommies and soliciting photoshoots of their soon-to-arrive newborn.

So folks, do drop over at our humble new business and have a browse. Maybe you’ll see something which you like, and book us!

p/s: I will be doing quite a number of backdated posts after this one, so if any one of you are interested to read what I wrote, do back track a little. Most of it will be updates on the kids which I have missed updating for the past *ugh* don’t-know-how-many months. Thanks!

I spent the Deepavali weekend over at mum’s place with the kids. Yesterday evening, we decided to give the kids a treat and brought them to Euro Fun Park since we didn’t have anything planned for them for the long weekend. The park set itself up at Aeon Bukit Tinggi’s carpark, like the last time they set themselves up at the 1Utama carpark when we brought a duck-walking Ivan almost 3 years ago.

Like previously, they charged entrance fees of RM3 for adults and RM2 for kids 3 to 12 years old. On top of the entrance fees, we have to pay for rides as well… mostly costing 2 tokens (RM2 for 1 token). Needless to say, the kids had fun and for just a short 2 hours of fun we spent about RM140 in total.

I guess it’s considered money well spent, as going for a short trip away from home would cost much more than this. And what’s more, the photography buff in me just couldn’t miss this chance of trying out panning technique on the merry-go-round.

As you can see from the picture, I was wondering why Izac’s got that stoned face while Ivan was absolutely ecstatic! I was afraid that he got scared on some of the rides. It turned out that he was merely so tired that he conked out as soon as we reached home.

Finally, after thinking long and hard on this next purchase, I finally gave in and bought the Canon flash unit for my 400D. I have been waiting to get my hands on a external flash for the longest time. Don’t all photographers wish to have natural light all day long, but that’s just wishful thinking. As soon as the sun hides itself, I become frustrated on the blurry photos caused by low light. Now I can go on snapping even in the evenings, especially in my room at nights, when I am most free to camwhore my kids *LOL*.

I guess I should really update something about what’s up with me. Being gone for too long from this blog makes me lazy, as you can see from my sporadic entries these past few months. Even my feed reader’s topping the charts at 1200 unread posts after 3 weeks of absence, that’s also coz I managed to clear off those paid posts written by those in my feed and leaving behind only those I plan to read… soon… *hehe*

First off, this marks the beginning of my 3rd week at work. I started work the week after the Raya holidays (6th October) and faced a mountain of faulty parts waiting to be sent out. Even now, they’re not all cleared yet, what with new stuff to do everyday while having to deal with the old stuff as well.

About the kids… they’re just doing great… driving their mommy up the wall, that is! Ivan has been a really good boy. Izac is the one driving me up the wall. Jolie… she’s an angel, when she’s not wailing! But really, Jolie is quite a good baby, probably because I co-sleep with her at nights so I hardly ever have to get up from my slumber too. More updates about them coming up one by one :D.

On newborn photography, I have done 2 photoshoots since the last I wrote an entry… one for my friend’s first child Cody and after that for Sasha’s brand new boy Justin. Those will be coming soon too!

With my confinement being over and having so many newborns all around me, I just can’t help but ask a few of my friends if they wanted their babies’ picture taken. The photography itch is back.

This latest photoshoot was done last Saturday (20th September) with baby YuQi at 19 days. While we were there, we also snapped a few picture of the oh-so-cute sister of hers, YuYi. Armed with some props dug from home, I once again went with my partner in crime newborn shoots, Jazzmint. This time we had more props than before, as Jazz brought a basket and a red bag (as seen in the photo above) which were both usable. Love the outcome of this shoot!

Normally, I would prefer to take pictures of the newborns when they are 14 days or less, as they tend to sleep better and let us put them in all kinds of positions since their bodies are still so soft. But like I said, there are so many babies being born and taking into consideration that some might need photo therapy (pun intended :P), we mostly ended up taking their pictures at more than 2 weeks old unlike the first one I ever did for Baby Lyan Fung with him being 8 days old. Moreover, I’m in confinement and will soon be back to work. Jazzmint is also working and we only ever slot in these sessions on weekends or public holidays.

So far, we have another 2 shoots lined up. Now if I can just get my hands on something I’ve been eyeing — Canon 580EX II Speedlite TTL and the Tamron AF 28-75mm f/2.8.

This post is very backdated, I finally managed to process the pictures. I went for another newborn shoot with Jazzmint at Chinnee’s house. Yes, it was a photoshoot for her twins.I didn’t manage to get a lot of pictures as the twins were really fussing the whole time we were there. Additionally, I was unable to touch the twins due to some pantang so it was a tad difficult when I want to place the twins in some particular position for a better picture.

I must say, photographing twins is way more difficult than I expected. I just can’t imaging how Chinnee can handle both of them if there’s no helper around. Both her boys look really boyish and handsome. I hope we can have another session with them after they learn how to sit up :D.

My camera is a girl *keke*. So, understandably she likes to be dressed up. I went and girly-fied her by dressing her up in new straps! After much thought, I finally went ahead and purchased 2 sets of straps from Etsy (Jazzmint got 2 for herself too, so we split the shipping cost). I’ve been eyeing on them for some time now, ever since I saw it on one of the digi scrapping designer’s blog.

Both straps come with quick release so I can change them easily when they get dirty. They are also washable and made with designer fabric (100% cotton). The straps come to about 50 inches in length so I could easily wear it across my body (it will end up at my waist / tummy).

Fabric - Carnival Bloom

Fabric - Monterey

I saw these in my house after reaching home from the hospital after delivery. A very nice pick-me-up, you might say. And speed is not bad too, a little over a week only, from the USA.

Jazzmint came over to my place on the 9th of August to shoot pictures of my little girl. I didn’t take any pictures of my one, only excuse I have is that I’m a lazy bum *haha*. Jolie’s skin has started peeling already but luckily we were still able to hide those spots with some props. Also, I was glad that she slept well for the photoshoot, so Jazz was able to get quite a few photos of her.

As always, I love those hands and feet shots… There were many nice shots which I like. I just can’t get enough of these photoshoot pictures, they tend to be more detailed than our everyday pictures, which are taken with the kids trying to escape from the camera. Thanks, Jazz, for coming over!

As planned, we left for Putrajaya in the wee hours of that Saturday (if I remember correctly, we planned to leave at about 6.30am). It was around 7-ish am when we reached Putrajaya and the sky was overcast! There wasn’t any sunrise to be seen, so we didn’t bother to go right to the mosque (we did our research and find that sunrise looks heavenly at the mosque by the lake), but took our first shots at the Jambatan Seri Saujana.

This trip marks my second attempt at taking photos in manual function. It was really an eye opener as I can see obvious differences with each different settings (macam jakun aje *keke*). The weather only permitted us to make 3 stops before it started to drizzle quite heavily. We were pretty bummed, so Jazzmint (yeah, it’s her again *LOL*) drove around and we decided to have breakfast and see if the rain stops. As expected, the mamak we went to consist of all Malay customers except the two of us, until one nice Chinese lady came in and sat next to us.

After breakfast and a brief chatting with that lady, we left and drove around until we found the mosque, which was just beside Jambatan Seri Perdana. It was right by a boating club, and by then, the weather has started to clear and the sky brightened to a clear blue. It was a pleasure taking pictures in the morning light. This is the place where I took the most pictures in this trip.

After the mosque, we drove around again and ended up at Jambatan Seri Wawasan. This bridge looks the best, IMHO. Like Jazz told me, at some angle, the bridge actually looks like a bird taking flight. This is also a good place to camwhore… poor bridge, kena at all angles *LOL*.

Finally, we went back to the main road where all the office buildings are. I find that taking picture of buildings is really not my cup of tea. I’m not sure if it’s because I suck at it *haha* or just the bland looking outcome that doesn’t make the building outstanding. The buildings in Putrajaya are really impressive… huge office blocks with very nice architectural designs. After stopping multiple times on this stretch of road, it was already around 11-ish am and the sky got dark again. We kinda had enough pictures already anyway, so we decided to leave. By the time we reached Bangsar, I could hardly keep my eyes opened, what with the hot sun out again and all.

The next morning, I woke up quite early, about 6-ish am as I planned on catching the sunrise. So I took out the camera and stood at the balcony… waiting and waiting. Eh, how come no sunrise? When I finally gave up and decided to go downstairs and have a look at the water chalets, lo and behold, sunrise on the opposite side *keke*.

It was quite peaceful watching sunrise when it’s all hushed and quiet. I tried sms-ing my friend and Jazz to see if they’re awake, but no reply. So I went down and had a walk.

When I went back upstairs, my mum was just waking up so we decided to go for breakfast, just the two of us. The rest of them can eat chicken rice which my mum is preparing in the pressure cooker (yeah, we brought some food to feed the children). After breakfast and feeding the kids, we went down for a dip in the pool. My friend Jenny went to Glory beach but found the sand to be yucky, kinda like mud they said. So the pool it is. By the way, the pool is small, and there were so many people there… *sighs*.

Right after having fun in the pool, we headed back up to the room at 11 something, showered and finished up the food. All of us went home on our own, no point following cars which will only slow us down.